RTC stands firm on June 30 deadline for mobile home parks encroaching on Coastal Rail Trail

Santa Cruz County’s transit agency is sticking to a June 30 deadline for property owners of two Live Oak mobile home parks to move homes and other structures off land designated for the Coastal Rail Trail. But county officials say they have struck an agreement with one of the parks’ residents to defer any legal action against residents until they can study the issue further.

Last year, residents of Castle Mobile Home Estates and Blue and Gold Star Mobile Home Park received notices from the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. The notices said the agency had completed a boundary survey and found that some of the homes within the parks sit on property owned by the RTC that the agency intends to use to build a pedestrian and biking trail and, eventually, for a passenger train.

The RTC gave residents until the end of this June to move homes and other structures — such as fences — that encroach on the agency’s property. If residents do not comply, the commission said it intended to relocate the structures and charge the encroaching part for the cost. While the project isn’t expected to break ground until next year, next month’s deadline is intended to allow time for any legal challenges on issues such as the encroachments.

On Thursday, District 1 County Supervisor Manu Koenig told the county Mobile and Manufactured Home Commission and a few residents from the both mobile home parks that if people do not comply with the deadline, the RTC intends to pursue legal action, which entails getting permission from a judge to remove the encroachments from its property. 

Who is ultimately responsible for the encroachments — the parks’ owners, residents or the RTC — remains unsettled and may become the subject of a court action unless the parties can come to an agreement. The RTC has maintained that it is not required to provide financial compensation or assistance to address the encroachments. 

The process to get that permission could take up to a year, and the RTC would have to initiate the process soon to stay on track with the project’s expected late 2026 groundbreaking, he said. 

However, Koenig added that the RTC doesn’t plan to take any immediate action to remove encroachments after the June 30 deadline passes. “When we arrive at that date, it’s not as if someone’s going to be out there with the chainsaw or jackhammers removing the encroachments,” Koenig told the commission on Thursday.

He also added that RTC staff have worked with Castle Mobile Home Estates residents to come to a collaborative agreement to suspend any legal action until the RTC can get a better understanding of the property boundaries. This would include inspections on both sides of the property line — the rail corridor and the mobile home park.

The RTC is also seeking to do the same with Blue and Gold Star Mobile Home Park, Koenig said. As of Thursday, RTC staff have not heard back from the property owners to schedule a meeting, he said. 

Castle Mobile Home Estates resident Cami Corvin said she and other residents are not currently considering legal action to prevent the RTC from removing their property. Instead, they are putting their trust into the management’s legal team. “I believe that they have our best interest in mind, and that they will do whatever is necessary to keep the status quo,” Corvin said. 

Lawyers representing Castle Mobile Home Estates’ owner, Costa Mesa-based Millennium Housing, sent a letter to the RTC in March listing reasons why property owners will not comply with the RTC’s demands. Attorneys for the RTC have yet to respond to the letter. 

Management for Castle Mobile Home Estates previously told Lookout that neither the park’s owner, nor its tenants, should have to pay for relocation, as the mobile home park was there long before the RTC purchased the rail line in 2012 and the rail line’s previous owner, Union Pacific Railroad, never raised an issue. Blue and Gold Star Mobile Home Park’s management did not return Lookout’s request for comment, and its residents previously told Lookout that it had remained mostly silent on the issue.

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